How easy is it for patients to get treatment with an NHS dentist? Discover our latest report on access to dentistry
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, we have seen a substantial increase in the number of people asking us for help or telling us about their experiences of trying to access NHS dental care.
This report has been written in response to many people contacting Healthwatch County Durham (HWCD) regarding the difficulties they were experiencing accessing an NHS dentist appointment. As well as working with stakeholders regionally, all the information we gather is shared with Healthwatch England and is used to enable them to show the national picture with stakeholders.
At the Healthwatch County Durham annual event in November 2021, Pauline Fletcher, the Dental Commissioning Lead North East and North Cumbria provided an update on the current position, including a lot of useful information about the NHS dental contract.
This report focuses on the current situation in County Durham, regarding accessing appointments and waiting times.
Out of a possible 54 dental practices the researchers spoke to 42 and asked a set of 7 questions. The questions were based on NHS appointment availability, availability of emergency treatment and accessibility. They are analysed in more depth later in the report.
The answers have given a clear picture that Country Durham has a similar situation to other counties in England. It shows that most Dental Practices are full and therefore cannot treat new patients. The exception to this in some cases, was children. From the practices that responded 35 could not take any new registered NHS patients, but 3 would register children only. A further 4 answered yes without clarification on whether it was adult or children’s registrations. However, emergency dental care for unregistered NHS patients was available in all practices.
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